A Liar in the Room
by DaughterOfStarlight
Summary: Jareth is brooding. What a surprise. Can a meddling sprite goad him into summoning 'the girl' to make peace? And if so, how will Sarah react? Oneshot, K   for a few scattered swear words. SarahxJareth. Reviews complete me.


**Hello darling readers! Labyrinth is an absolute favorite of mine and I've been dying to upload a story for ages now. I have an offer for you all on this one; leave me review on one of my stories and I'll drop you a note for one of yours. I hope, as always, my work is enjoyed and may you suceed in all your literary endeavors.**

**With love- DaughterOfStarlight**

The spite sat crouched on the windowsill, her wild crimps of auburn hair splayed around her face, multilayered gossamer wings twitching behind her. Her childlike features were mischievous as she watched the Goblin King in his throne room. Jareth sat with one leg draped over the arm of his throne, twisting a strand of fair hair through his fingers as he gazed into the crystal he held. His mismatched eyes flickered back and forth, curious, then disappointed. He turned the crystal in his hand thoughtfully, as if it held the meaning of the Universe.

"You can't see her that way, Jareth. She is hidden from your sight. You know better."

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, and the diminutive faery gave a toothy grin.

"Gia," The Goblin King intoned, distaste evident in his voice. "So good of you to show up unannounced."

The sprite made a popping sound with her mouth and hopped off her perch, drawing herself up to her full height, a solid three feet. She smoothed her short, clinging dress, made of thistledown and ragged silk.

"Oh, you're usually so happy to see me," She pouted. "No hello for your oldest friend?"

Jareth rolled his eyes, tucking the crystal away in the folds of his jacket. "You took up a vigil at my cradle the night I was born and have hardly given me a moment of peace since. You're a nuisance, nothing more."

Gia clucked her tongue, strolling over to Jareth's throne.

"Ooo, I can see you're in a mood. Not surprising, really."

"Shouldn't you be harassing my brother?"

Gia stuck her tongue out. "Danisk isn't half as fun as you. And Avalon gets boring after a while, so I thought I'd come visit my favorite black sheep of the royal family."

Jareth rolled his eyes. "Slumming in my barren corner of the multiverse. Typical."  
>Gia gave a teasing laugh. "Well if you had spent more of your youth attending to affairs of state and less of it chasing skirts around your father's castle, perhaps you would have been granted a better title when you came of age than Grand Nanny to Goblins and Unwanted Children."<p>

Jareth swatted at her like an annoying fly, baring his teeth at her, which looked slightly pointed in the right light. The sprite hopped up onto the back of his throne, batting her wings angrily a few times as she scowled down at him.

"Don't be bitter, Jareth. You usually enjoy seeing me. What has you in such a black mood?"

The Goblin King sighed heavily, glancing up at the looming sprite. Sprites were often assigned as protectors and companions to well-to-do fae children at the time of their birth. Gia had simply never left, drifting in and out of his life when he wanted her least and needed her most.

"Oh, the unusual. Boredom. Frustration. Overall need for mischief with little outlet thereof."

"Liar," Gia said with a smile. "I know what it is. It's slim and brunette with an awful temper."

"Go accost my brother, Gia! You're _his_ consort now."

"Yes but I like you better. Let us see the crystal."

Jareth made a disgusted noise but pulled the orb-shaped crystal from his tailored jacket and tossed it up to Gia. She caught it with her tiny hands, gazing into the dream-like picture caught there. A determined-looking girl in a poet's shirt was running through one of the trickier parts of The Labyrinth, her long hair streaming behind her.

"This is Sarah?" Gia asked, settling down into a cross-legged position atop the throne.

"The one you've heard of," Jareth muttered.

"She's really quite pretty," Gia admitted. "Stubborn as Hell, just like you. But so young!"

"Everyone's young compared to me."

"Oh, but really! She's hardly more than a child." Gia peered into the crystal once again. "Aw, if you turn it this way you can see her in that lovely dress you had commissioned…."

Jareth snatched the crystal away from her before she knew it was gone, hiding it away in his jacket. Gia gave him a dark look but refused to lose her temper.

"Have you had any more runners since-"

"A few. Imbiciles, one and all. No one like her."

"No one pretty as her, you mean."

Jareth's eyes smoldered a warning, one Gia ignored.

"You were in love with her. And don't bother denying it, it was written into the wish she laid out for you. Not that it would have made a difference, anyway."

"Do you have a purpose, Gia, or is your sole aspiration in life to provoke me to violence?"

The sprite heaved an over-dramtic sigh.

"Jay…"

"Jareth."

"Jare. It's been months! Almost five years in her time. And in any world, the civil thing to do after a dispute is to apologize."

Jareth gave her a sardonic look.

"You're joking."

"No I'm not!" Gia hopped off the throne and looked up at him, hands on hips, feet planted. "You can stare at those pictures of her and curse her name and yours for all eternity, or you can just summon her and speak to her yourself."

"What if I'm not in the mood to apologize?"

"Then don't! Play chess, argue politics, I don't care! Do something, Jareth, but whatever you do stop brooding. It's unbecoming."

The Goblin King had heard enough. He rose, swiping at her with the edge of his cloak. "Go home, Gia. I have no need of you."

The sprite fumed, cheeks turning fuchsia in rage. But then she just stuck out her tongue and flew out the window from whence she came.

Jareth sighed in her absence, feeling old and bored, prevailing dispositions as of late. He reached into his jacket and produced his crystal orb, sighing heavily. He wasn't going to pretend it hadn't been so very tempting over the last few months, to just summon her up on a whim. The power went both way once he was called, she was as much as his beck and call as he was at hers. But it seemed somehow desperate, not to mention impolite.

Jareth rolled the crystal across his fingers, thinking intently. Then again, a goodly amount of time had passed in her world. Perhaps she didn't hate him as fiercely as she had before. Perhaps she had even forgotten him. Mortal children were so good at forgetting magic. Wouldn't that be nice? To have a second chance at a first impression.

Acting before he could use logic to talk himself out of it, Jareth spoke.

"Show me Sarah."

With that he threw down the crystal, watching as it shattered into a shower of glittering shards. When they cleared he found a familiar face looking back at him, chocolate eyes contoured slightly by makeup, lips pursed in utter surprise. She was older and she had cut her hair, but yes, it was her.

She looked around her in wonder, twirling around a few times, then her eyes fell on him. They narrowed in absolute anger.

"You! I LOATHE you!"

Yes. Most definitely Sarah.

"Morning," Jareth responded coolly. Sarah had grown up beautifully, but she still had that short fuse and overall aura of mixed awe and disgust in his presence. Her dark brows knitted together.

"Why do I loathe you?" She muttered, half to herself. "Toby...It had something to do with Toby...And a peach...This place; from my book..._The Labyrinth_." Sarah stopped dead, heart dropping into her stomach. "Your Labyrinth."

Jareth hinted at a smile, showing a glint of teeth.

"Hello Sarah."

The childlike awe fell away instantly, replaced by a indignant fire. She remembered now, remembered the way he said her name. Mockingly but tenderly, caressing every syllable.

"You're the goddam son of a bitch who stole my baby brother and strung me along for thirteen hours in this house of horrors!"  
>"And you're the whiny little brat who tried her very best to leave my Labyrinth in ruins," Jareth shot back, some bitter venom slipping into his voice."<p>

Sarah strode up to him, fists tightly balled up.

"Ugh, I tried so hard to forget you! You pretentious, arrogant bastard; you just destroyed years of repressed memories! What do you want from me, Goblin King?"

"It's Jareth, actually. I think you've earned the right to address me informally. Winner take all and such."

Sarah looked surprised. When she spoke again, she managed to repeat the question without screeching.

"What do you want from me, Jareth?"

He swallowed a smile. He rather liked the sound of his name fom her lips.

"Well?" Sarah demanded, bordering on uncivil.

This gave Jareth pause. What was he going to say? That he had missed her over-confident laughter, her memorized recitation of cheap drama? That he had been goaded into it by a sprite from a past life?

The fae reached into his jacket and produced a chipped plastic bracelet, which he offered to her. "Hoglet-"

"Hoggle."

"Wished to return this to you."

Sarah examined the bracelet. It was indeed the one she had used to bribe the morally ambiguous dwarf into helping her traverse the labyrinth.

"You summoned me out of anthropology class and through all of space and time to give me back costume jewelry I won out of a quarter vending machine?"

"The dwarf's very particular about his possessions," Jareth sniffed, dangling the bracelet from a finger. There was no way under the world he was telling Sarah that he had lifted it off Hoggle because he thought it unfair that a dwarf should have a souvenir of Sarah and not he.

The young woman snatched the bracelet away from him, snapping it around her wrist. "Thank you," She forced out.

An awkward silence passed between the two of them. Jareth broke it with,

"Would you like a drink?"

"Yes," Sarah said, too quickly. The Goblin King promptly disappeared, leaving Sarah free to go to the window and amazedly take in the Labyrinth all over again. How could she have forgotten this place? Her friends? Her archenemy? Every girl needed a good archenemy...

As if on cue, Jareth appeared at her side, offering her a glass of what she hoped was wine. She downed most of it one gulp, forgetting to wonder if it was poisoned or not.

"It's beautiful," She admitted, gesturing towards the expanse of forest that rimmed the east side of the castle. Dusty chaparral and manicured courtyards stretched to their right, various landscapes fading in and out of each of seamlessly.

"It was offered to you on a sliver platter once, as I recall," Jareth replied, detached as always. He gave her a pointed glance, one she shrugged off.

"As I recall, the offer was made with questionable intentions and under debatably pedophilic circumstances."

"Point taken." Jareth leaned against the railing of the window, looking at her.

"How's life been?"

"Boring. Scholarly. Toby's fine, runs track. Dad re-married. Again."

"Sounds...secure," Jareth ventured.

She glared at him, finishing her wine. "Better than getting dismembered by fieries or fighting masquerade-based hallucinogens."

"The fae call it glamour," Jareth corrected. "It's supposed to transport you into a reality fashioned from your deepest wishes and desires. Your dream was quite lovely, if I may say so."

"But the dress was your idea, I suppose?"

"After a fashion."

Sarah sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked quietly. "And I challenge you to tell the truth."

"But that's so out of character."

"Jareth."

He smiled, tilting his head in an almost feline way. Then the smile disappeared.

"I missed you, Sarah," He whispered, suddenly intimate. She looked at him, a sadness tinging her eyes.

"You're a liar."

"You're in denial. Tell me you never thought on me with fondness. Not even once. I dare you."

In response, Sarah reached out to tentatively brush a strand of pale hair from his eyes, winding it through her fingers.

"I prefer to only have one liar in the room."

I would suffice. Jareth cupped her chin in his hand and kissed her brazenly, daring her to draw away. She did not. Sarah slid her arms around his neck, letting him pull her tightly against him.

From the window, Gia smirked in a self satisfied manner. Hoggle, who had been strolling around the castle looking for piskies to gas, stopped in front of the window, dumbfounded. The scene inside was not exactly to be expected. He looked up in shock to Gia, who gave him a wink.

"Is...Is Miss Sarah coming back?" He asked.

Gia hopped off the windowsill, beginning to skip off down the path. "Keep your fingers crossed, Hoggle. I know I will."


End file.
